Moving Adventure Psy-O-Blade (1990)
Graphics-6.5 Sound-7.5 Control-6.5 Challenge-4 Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
+
Decent art direction, good dialogue and storytelling overall (fairly mature and it flows well, decent characterization, nice cutscenes for dramatic scenes), well made creepy atmosphere (sci-fi horror theme, rescue/repair mission on a distant space ship goes wrong), always shows a map of the ship (Septemius 2), decent lore/fluff (lots of info to read if you investigate each room thoroughly), animated portraits when someone is talking, save almost anywhere, somewhat comical (a few pop culture references, cheesy reactions, a meta joke about video games in a video game), mixes in action sequences (short rail shooter segment),
+/-
Gore and swear words, references to Alien, some really bad jokes, cheesy transitions (3D animation of the logo made up of spheres along with upbeat music) divide the game into chapters, the video game sequence is much shorter and easier than the game tells you it’s going to be (you only need to shoot down a couple of asteroids instead of 200), sometimes stereotypical gender roles (the two female characters are kind of passive and easily frightened; however Sophia is computer savvy and Feminine gets to save the day towards the end, Keith is typically clumsy and doesn’t really develop much), features black characters as superiors to the main protagonist,
-
Can’t die (removes a lot of tension from some scenes) except for in the fight with Jean (where the game tricks you into death since shooting didn’t work on Arthur and you need to do it here; Also you’re supposed to be out of bullets when Keith shoots an explosive he’s thrown at her in the next ‘turn’), it’s pretty obvious that the doctor is a villain after a while, so-so colour use, clunky message box system (you can make the entire box fill but then the dialogue keeps going so at fast speed it can be easy to miss stuff), sometimes tedious to have to talk to everyone over and over to progress the story (sometimes you’ll also have to investigate part of a room more than once to find something and there’s a bit of pixel hunting) – some dialogue could’ve progressed without player interaction to make the game flow a bit smoother, no inventory, no journal for reviewing gathered info, only one save slot, can’t skip the in-game intro or repeated dialogue scenes, no pause button?, plot oddities (Keith tells the others that he threw parts at Arthur even if you didn’t choose to do so, can’t react to the second android before the Doctor (Jimmy?) turns on you), no name shown when a person is talking or when hovering the cursor over someone, other versions have better in-game artwork (PC-98), some poor instruments
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
+
Decent art direction, good dialogue and storytelling overall (fairly mature and it flows well, decent characterization, nice cutscenes for dramatic scenes), well made creepy atmosphere (sci-fi horror theme, rescue/repair mission on a distant space ship goes wrong), always shows a map of the ship (Septemius 2), decent lore/fluff (lots of info to read if you investigate each room thoroughly), animated portraits when someone is talking, save almost anywhere, somewhat comical (a few pop culture references, cheesy reactions, a meta joke about video games in a video game), mixes in action sequences (short rail shooter segment),
+/-
Gore and swear words, references to Alien, some really bad jokes, cheesy transitions (3D animation of the logo made up of spheres along with upbeat music) divide the game into chapters, the video game sequence is much shorter and easier than the game tells you it’s going to be (you only need to shoot down a couple of asteroids instead of 200), sometimes stereotypical gender roles (the two female characters are kind of passive and easily frightened; however Sophia is computer savvy and Feminine gets to save the day towards the end, Keith is typically clumsy and doesn’t really develop much), features black characters as superiors to the main protagonist,
-
Can’t die (removes a lot of tension from some scenes) except for in the fight with Jean (where the game tricks you into death since shooting didn’t work on Arthur and you need to do it here; Also you’re supposed to be out of bullets when Keith shoots an explosive he’s thrown at her in the next ‘turn’), it’s pretty obvious that the doctor is a villain after a while, so-so colour use, clunky message box system (you can make the entire box fill but then the dialogue keeps going so at fast speed it can be easy to miss stuff), sometimes tedious to have to talk to everyone over and over to progress the story (sometimes you’ll also have to investigate part of a room more than once to find something and there’s a bit of pixel hunting) – some dialogue could’ve progressed without player interaction to make the game flow a bit smoother, no inventory, no journal for reviewing gathered info, only one save slot, can’t skip the in-game intro or repeated dialogue scenes, no pause button?, plot oddities (Keith tells the others that he threw parts at Arthur even if you didn’t choose to do so, can’t react to the second android before the Doctor (Jimmy?) turns on you), no name shown when a person is talking or when hovering the cursor over someone, other versions have better in-game artwork (PC-98), some poor instruments
